(BaseballStL) — With a bullpen stocked with hard throwing guys that are consistently in the mid-to-upper 90s, having a side arm reliever like Pat Neshek could have a lot of value to the Cardinals. So far in spring training, he is making the most of his opportunity to be on the club.

Neshek has pitched in two games but his most recent performance, yesterday against the Red Sox, was his most impressive. The Butler alum went 1.1 scoreless innings while giving up just one hit and striking out three and walking one.

He was hitting 90-91 on the radar gun and made right-handers look foolish at times. But that wasn't what the manager enjoyed seeing most.

"What I liked seeing yesterday was getting lefthanders out throwing that change up," Mike Matheny said. "To look at the possibility of having him on our club you'd be very hand tied if you had a lefty like a (Randy) Choate who can only face lefties and a righty that could only face righties.

"It doesn't work because you'd end up killing the rest of your bullpen," Matheny said.

So how Neshek does against both righties and lefties will go a long way in determining if he'll make the roster at the end of spring training. For now, he's on the right track.